Improved overcheck driving-rein



llNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE..

LEWIS G. SAYRE, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

IMPROVED OVERCHECK DRIVING-REIN.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 56,619, dated July 24, 1866.

To all lwhom t may concern:

Be it known that I, LEWIS G. SAYRE, of' Cincinnati, Hamilton county, Ohio, have invented a new and useful Safety Overcheck Bridle and Heins, and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and eXact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification.

My invention relates to the class of devices which employ, in addition to the ordinary rein, a check-rein for use in the event ot' a disposition by the horse to kick or run away; and it consists in providing` such rein with a separate hit adapted to exert an upward pressure, which acts in (zo-operation with the downward and rearward pressure of the common bit.

Figure 1 shows my improvement in place upon the animal. Fig. 2 is an enlarged view ot' the bridle detached.

A is a customary bit; B, the reins; C, the cheek-strap; D, the crown-piece, and E the throat-strap, all ot' customary form.

F is my safetybit, attached to an overcheck, Gr, which, being carried directly upward,is run through guides d on 'the crown piece, and, branching down on both sides of the horses head, terminates in buckled loops H, through which is rove my safety-rein I, which rein is secured to the bit-ring J, the same as the common rein. Both reins are rove through the terret-rin gs K.

My safety-rein and customary rein may be held snugly but not immovably together by two or more loops or tubes, L. 'Y

The improvement may be applied to one or both horses working in double harness by branching in the ordinary way or by buckling to the center of the bearing or gag rein.

The improvement is also applicable to riding-bridles and hitting riggiugs. 1n the former case it prevents the animal depressing his head to throw the rider, and in the latter case prevents him dropping his head down upon the rein or slugging, and results in teaching the colt to carry his head with more and latter between the thumbs and foretingers and the ordinary rein between said fingers and the next. The animal may thus be driven indefinitely without special restraint and allowed to carry his head with any degree of freedom desired by the driver; but the instant that he exhibits signs of insubordination the upper sides of the hands, being drawn backward, tighten the safety-rein and draw the checkbit forcibly against the upper side of the commissure of the mouth', while the ordinary bit is pressing downward. The pain caused by these two oppositely-acting bits obliges the horse to open his mouth and to throw his head back, as indicated in Fig. 1, thus making it impossible for him either to kick or run away, and it prevents hardmouthed horses from pulling so heavily upon the bit as to render them unpleasant to drive.

By the arrangement above described the driver is enabled to act with a gain or purchase on the check-rein, because a given motion of the check-rein produces a slower motion in the overcheck with a proportionate gain of power, the loop in the overcheck, through which the check-rein is drawn, discharging the duty of a pulley.

Much ot' the efficiency of this bridle is due to the provision of two separate and independent bits, ot' which, while one (the common one) draws downward and rearward, the other bit is caused to draw directly upward and with the force of a powerful purchase, the two forces compelling the animal to throw his mouth wide open and his head upward and backward, making it impossible for him to take the bit in his teeth, as vicious horses will occasionally do with every description of single bit.

I claim herein as new and of my invention- The provision, in connection with a bit, A, and bridle of the ordinary form, of the independent upward-bearin g bit F, suspended from the overcheck G, in the described combination with the check or safety rein I, substantially as set forth.

In testimony of which invention I hereunto 

